- Russia appears to ignore a request for information from the UN nuclear watchdog after it was accused of being behind a radiation spike in Scandinavia.
- Last week, a certain but notable increase in the levels of three radioactive isotopes was observed in Sweden, Finland and Norway. Dutch authorities said it came “from the direction of western Russia.”
- The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday it had requested data from European countries. Twenty-nine countries responded, but not Russia.
- On Saturday, Russia’s nuclear power operator denied it was the source of the leak, saying all of its plants were operating as usual.
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Russia has yet to respond to a request for information from the UN nuclear watchdog after it was accused of being behind a radiation leak in Scandinavia.
Last week, authorities in Sweden, Finland and Norway reported a slight increase in the levels of the radioactive isotopes Ru-103, Cs-134 and Cs-137.
An analysis by the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and Environment (NIPHE) found that the radiation came “from the direction of western Russia”.
On Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that so far 29 European countries had responded to a request for a status report sent on Saturday, but not Russia.
A view of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, seen in August 2019.
Peter Kovalev TASS via Getty Images
The countries “informed the IAEA that there were no events in their territories that could have caused the observed airborne concentrations of Ru-103, Cs-134 and Cs-137”.
Although the increase in radiation is unknown, it is not dangerous, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the IAEA.
“I hope that more Member States will provide us with relevant information and data, and we will continue to inform the public,” he said.
People watch the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant arrive in Pevek on September 14, 2019.
Alexander Ryumin / TASS / Getty Images
The radiation pattern, according to NIPHE, “indicates damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant.”
A spokesman for Rosenergoatom Concern, a branch of the Russian centralized nuclear power company Rosatom, denied that there had been a leak on Saturday.
Two nuclear power plants in western Russia, Leningrad and Kola, are “working in a normal regime,” the spokesperson told the state-run TASS news agency on Saturday.
Russia has a long and turbulent history with nuclear power, the most famous trying to cover up the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear installation in 1986.
He was accused of failing to disclose an accident at the Mayak nuclear facility in 2017 and of covering up an accident at a nuclear facility in Nyonoksa in August 2019.
Russia has 36 nuclear power reactors in total, according to the IAEA.
